Couple Follows `Vision' To Mexico Mission

April 22, 1993|by KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS, The Morning Call

Clothes were piled high in Roger and Nancy Rinker's garage.

Boxes of donated shoes, blankets and coats filled every corner. The articles were earmarked to go to Mexico as part of the Lehigh Township (Northampton County) couple's A-Vision Mission, as soon as enough was collected.

Since the mission began in January 1992, the couple, with the help of volunteers, have sorted and packed thousands of pounds of donations into boxes which they store until they have enough for a truckload. In the first seven months of the mission, more than 80,000 pounds of clothes were collected.

It all began when Roger Rinker had a vision. He felt God wanted him to do missionary work but didn't know what direction to take.

"I said to God, `Show me where you want me to go,'" says Roger.

Shortly afterward, Roger was at a church service in Lancaster when the pastor announced he needed volunteers to go on mission to Mexico. Roger felt he had found his calling.

As part of his vision, Roger wanted to send 80,000 pounds of clothing to Mexico, so he and his wife Nancy began collecting donations.

"Every Monday and Thursday night we box clothing," says Nancy. "We used to do it every night of the week. We had one to two truckloads every two weeks."

Through Transport for Christ, the couple found a trucking company from Missouri which volunteered to take the goods to Latin American Bible Missions in Laredo, Texas, 2 miles from the Mexican border.

Roger also wanted to take a team of volunteers to Mexico to build a church. Targeting a week in March of 1992, Roger began looking for volunteers and by the time they left, they had a team of 13 people. The group helped build a church and distributed bibles, clothing and food.

"The exciting thing is everybody who goes on a trip is really different," says Nancy. "People called and said, `We heard about your vision and want to be a part of it.'"

The Rinkers were so pleased with the response to the mission, they planned another trip to Mexico last October.

"There is a source of great unity on these trips," says Nancy.

The October trip was originally planned to build a church in a small village but the team was sidetracked to the "Children for Christ" orphanage in Tampico.

"We hadn't planned on going there," says Nancy.

When the team got to the orphanage it was in desperate need.

"We found the director begging in the streets," says Nancy. "There were 12 boys with only three beds and they would get meat only once a week."

"There were weeks when for three and four days they had no food and fasted," adds Roger.

The team learned the orphanage needed beds and a refrigerator as well as "beans and rice which everyone needs on a regular basis," says Nancy.

The team donated $225 to buy food for the boys and the Rinkers pledged A-Vision would send the orphanage $100 a month. The Rinkers also set up a program to help support the orphanage which survives on only $200 per month support from the Laredo mission. Through the program, anyone may sponsor a Mexican orphan for $5, $10, $20 per month or donate enough to purchase a bed.

In another town, the team worked to build a new church and sent money for tin to provide a roof for another church.

"The building had a very primitive roof made of thatching," says Roger. "The people sleep right on the earth and chickens are housed right in their bedroom."

To build the framework for a church, the team, both men and women, had to dig out posts with claw hammers to remove the old building.

"Some of the Mexican people came and helped," says Nancy.

A heavy rain was hampering the team's efforts but according to Nancy after they prayed, within 15 minutes the rain stopped.

The team traveled to other remote areas including one place 40 miles into the desert where the people were very poor.

"They would eat snakes and frogs," says Nancy. "If they had goats they were very lucky. In South Mexico, they built swamp shacks wherever they could find a place."

The Rinkers and their team were appalled at the conditions they found.

"It was starting to get cold and a baby froze in a squatters' village," said Nancy. "There is a great need all over the world. If we try to make a difference, we will make a difference."

Nancy adds that the team is aided by pastors from Mexico. One pastor, Herb Bargo, is from the Laredo mission and trains Mexican students for two years free of charge and then puts them in churches in the villages.

At one of the last villages the team visited, they gave out stuffed toys.

"It almost caused a riot," says Nancy. "They have so little. A lot of people gave away their own clothing. I gave a shirt to a woman I prayed with."

As the mission has grown, Nancy found she had to devote more time to it and quit her job.

The couple as well as other team members pay all their own expenses for the trips to Mexico.

"I wonder how we're going to do it," Nancy says. "It's a lot of work and a lot of money. But we feel, how could you not keep doing this. We have so much abundance we can afford to give to our neighbors."

Roger, who has a full-time job, does most of the mission work at night.

Contributions may be sent to A-Vision, 3877 Apple Road, Northampton 18067.

Clothing is collected weekly and volunteers are always needed to sort and box clothing. Clothing is sorted from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays. For information on the mission, call 261-2643.